TWO former girlfriends of Jayden Parkinson’s killer have told a jury they feared they would die by his hand.

Ben Blakeley bit, punched, kicked and strangled his girlfriends and threatened to cut one up in a bath, the murder trial heard yesterday.

The Oxford Crown Court jury also heard that Blakeley is believed to have killed cats belonging to both Jayden and another girlfriend.

Sarah Rees, 22, who dated Blakeley last year, wept in the witness stand as she told how he pinned her against the wall by her throat.

She said: “He was pushing it to the extreme. I thought I was going to die.”

The young woman described the relationship as “controlling, intimidating and scary” and said Blakeley had threatened to kill her if she ever cheated on him.

But she said he never apologised if he hurt her, adding: “It was my fault for making him angry.”

And she said: “When he realised I didn’t care what he did to me he threatened my family. He threatened to burn my house down.”

The jury also heard the witness was shocked when she heard Blakeley was suspected of killing 17-year-old Jayden, and had said: “I knew he was aggressive, I knew he was violent, I knew he got angry but I did not think he could do anything that bad.”

Blakeley, of Christchurch Road in Reading, has admitted killing Jayden – who died from pressure to the neck – and burying her body in his uncle’s grave in Didcot last December, but denies murder.

Katie Gale, 21, told the jury Blakeley strangled her during their two-year relationship, which ended in 2012.

The witness said Blakeley once choked her after he saw her talk to another man.

She said: “He said he would cut me up in the bath.”

The witness told the jury that Blakeley, who had been unemployed, would take her money and her mobile phone.

The jury also heard Blakeley told her he had stabbed her missing cat to upset her.

When both witnesses were asked why they did not leave Blakeley sooner, they said they loved him but they were also scared of him.

The jury also heard from support workers at Oxford’s One Foot Forward hostel where Jayden was living when she was killed.

Jayden was said to have “come out of her shell” after breaking up with Blakeley, but later found out she was pregnant.

Support worker Julian Meade said Jayden had told him she wanted to keep the baby.

The jury were shown CCTV of Jayden leaving the Iffley Road hostel to meet Blakeley on the day he killed her.

Sharon Heath, project manager at the hostel, said Jayden had believed Blakeley had killed her cat as it went missing and he turned up at her home with the body.

Blakeley has admitted perverting the course of justice, as has a fellow defendant, who is 17. The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, denies preventing a lawful burial of Jayden.

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